Polite number

A Young diagram representing visually a polite

expansion 15 = 4 + 5 + 6

In number theory, a polite number is a

positive integer that can be written as the
sum of two or more consecutive positive
integers. Other positive integers are
impolite.[1][2] Polite numbers have also
been called staircase numbers because
the Young diagrams representing
graphically the partitions of a polite
number into consecutive integers (in the
French style of drawing these diagrams)
resemble staircases.[3][4][5] If all numbers
in the sum are strictly greater than one, the
numbers so formed are also called
trapezoidal numbers because they
represent patterns of points arranged in a
trapezoid (trapezium outside North
America).[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

The problem of representing numbers as

sums of consecutive integers and of
counting the number of representations of
this type has been studied by Sylvester,[13]
Mason,[14][15] Leveque,[16] and many other
more recent
authors.[1][2][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]

Examples and
characterization
The first few polite numbers are

3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18,

19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41,
42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, ...
(sequence A138591 in the OEIS).
The impolite numbers are exactly the
powers of two.[13] It follows from the
Lambek–Moser theorem that the nth
polite number is f(n + 1), where

Politeness
The politeness of a positive number is
defined as the number of ways it can be
expressed as the sum of consecutive
integers. For every x, the politeness of x
equals the number of odd divisors of x that
are greater than one.[13] The politeness of
the numbers 1, 2, 3, ... is
 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 0, 1, 2,
1, 1, 3, ... (sequence A069283 in the
OEIS).

For instance, the politeness of 9 is 2

because it has two odd divisors, 3 and
itself, and two polite representations

9 = 2 + 3 + 4 = 4 + 5;

the politeness of 15 is 3 because it has

three odd divisors, 3, 5, and 15, and (as is
familiar to cribbage players)[24] three polite
representations

15 = 4 + 5 + 6 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 7 + 8.

An easy way of calculating the politeness

of a positive number is that of
decomposing the number into its prime
factors, taking the powers of all prime
factors greater than 2, adding 1 to all of
them, multiplying the numbers thus
obtained with each other and subtracting
1. For instance 90 has politeness 5
because ; the powers
of 3 and 5 are respectively 2 and 1, and
applying this method
.

Construction of polite
representations from odd
divisors
To see the connection between odd
divisors and polite representations,
suppose a number x has the odd divisor
y > 1. Then y consecutive integers
centered on x/y (so that their average
value is x/y) have x as their sum:

Some of the terms in this sum may be zero

or negative. However, if a term is zero it
can be omitted and any negative terms
may be used to cancel positive ones,
leading to a polite representation for x.
(The requirement that y > 1 corresponds to
the requirement that a polite
representation have more than one term;
applying the same construction for y = 1
would just lead to the trivial one-term
representation x = x.) For instance, the
polite number x = 14 has a single nontrivial
odd divisor, 7. It is therefore the sum of 7
consecutive numbers centered at 14/7 = 2:

14 = (2 − 3) + (2 − 2) + (2 − 1) + 2 + (2 +
1) + (2 + 2) + (2 + 3).

The first term, −1, cancels a later +1, and

the second term, zero, can be omitted,
leading to the polite representation
 14 = 2 + (2 + 1) + (2 + 2) + (2 + 3) = 2 + 3
+ 4 + 5.

Conversely, every polite representation of x

can be formed from this construction. If a
representation has an odd number of
terms, x/y is the middle term, while if it has
an even number of terms and its minimum
value is m it may be extended in a unique
way to a longer sequence with the same
sum and an odd number of terms, by
including the 2m − 1 numbers −(m − 1), −
(m − 2), ..., −1, 0, 1, ..., m − 2, m − 1. After
this extension, again, x/y is the middle
term. By this construction, the polite
representations of a number and its odd
divisors greater than one may be placed
into a one-to-one correspondence, giving a
bijective proof of the characterization of
polite numbers and politeness.[13][25] More
generally, the same idea gives a two-to-
one correspondence between, on the one
hand, representations as a sum of
consecutive integers (allowing zero,
negative numbers, and single-term
representations) and on the other hand
odd divisors (including 1).[15]

Another generalization of this result states

that, for any n, the number of partitions of
n into odd numbers having k distinct
values equals the number of partitions of n
into distinct numbers having k maximal
runs of consecutive numbers.[13][26][27]
Here a run is one or more consecutive
values such that the next larger and the
next smaller consecutive values are not
part of the partition; for instance the
partition 10 = 1 + 4 + 5 has two runs, 1 and
4 + 5. A polite representation has a single
run, and a partition with one value d is
equivalent to a factorization of n as the
product d ⋅ (n/d), so the special case k = 1
of this result states again the equivalence
between polite representations and odd
factors (including in this case the trivial
representation n = n and the trivial odd
factor 1).
Trapezoidal numbers
If a polite representation starts with 1, the
number so represented is a triangular
number

More generally, it is the difference of two

nonconsecutive triangular numbers

In either case, it is called a trapezoidal

number. That is, the polite numbers are
simply trapezoidal numbers. One can also
consider polite numbers whose only polite
representations start with 1. The only such
numbers are the triangular numbers with
only one nontrivial odd divisor, because for
those numbers, according to the bijection
described earlier, the odd divisor
corresponds to the triangular
representation and there can be no other
polite representations. Thus, polite
numbers whose only polite representation
starts with 1 must have the form of a
power of two multiplied by an odd prime.
As Jones and Lord observe,[12] there are
exactly two types of triangular numbers
with this form:
 1. the even perfect numbers
2n − 1(2n − 1) formed by the product of
a Mersenne prime 2n − 1 with half the
nearest power of two, and
2. the products 2n − 1(2n + 1) of a Fermat
prime 2n + 1 with half the nearest
power of two.

(sequence A068195 in the OEIS). For

instance, the perfect number
28 = 23 − 1(23 − 1) and the number
136 = 24 − 1(24 + 1) are both this type of
polite number. It is conjectured that there
are infinitely many Mersenne primes, in
which case there are also infinitely many
polite numbers of this type.
References
1. Adams, Ken (March 1993), "How polite
is x?", The Mathematical Gazette, 77
(478): 79–80, doi:10.2307/3619263 ,
JSTOR 3619263 .
2. Griggs, Terry S. (December 1991),
"Impolite Numbers", The Mathematical
Gazette, 75 (474): 442–443,
doi:10.2307/3618630 ,
JSTOR 3618630 .
3. Mason, John; Burton, Leone; Stacey,
Kaye (1982), Thinking Mathematically,
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 978-0-201-
10238-3.
4. Stacey, K.; Groves, S. (1985),
Strategies for Problem Solving,
Melbourne: Latitude.
5. Stacey, K.; Scott, N. (2000),
"Orientation to deep structure when
trying examples: a key to successful
problem solving", in Carillo, J.;
Contreras, L. C. (eds.), Resolucion de
Problemas en los Albores del Siglo
XXI: Una vision Internacional desde
Multiples Perspectivas y Niveles
Educativos (PDF), Huelva, Spain:
Hergue, pp. 119–147, archived from
the original (PDF) on 2008-07-26.
6. Gamer, Carlton; Roeder, David W.;
Watkins, John J. (1985), "Trapezoidal
numbers", Mathematics Magazine, 58
(2): 108–110, doi:10.2307/2689901 ,
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7. Jean, Charles-É. (March 1991), "Les
nombres trapézoïdaux" (French),
Bulletin de l'AMQ: 6–11.
8. Haggard, Paul W.; Morales, Kelly L.
(1993), "Discovering relationships and
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numbers", International Journal of
Mathematical Education in Science
and Technology, 24 (1): 85–90,
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 9. Feinberg-McBrian, Carol (1996), "The
case of trapezoidal numbers",
Mathematics Teacher, 89 (1): 16–24.
10. Smith, Jim (1997), "Trapezoidal
numbers", Mathematics in School, 5:
42.
11. Verhoeff, T. (1999), "Rectangular and
trapezoidal arrangements" , Journal of
Integer Sequences, 2: 16,
Bibcode:1999JIntS...2...16V , Article
99.1.6.
12. Jones, Chris; Lord, Nick (1999),
"Characterising non-trapezoidal
numbers", The Mathematical Gazette,
83 (497): 262–263,
 doi:10.2307/3619053 ,
JSTOR 3619053 .
13. Sylvester, J. J.; Franklin, F (1882), "A
constructive theory of partitions,
arranged in three acts, an interact and
an exodion", American Journal of
Mathematics, 5 (1): 251–330,
doi:10.2307/2369545 ,
JSTOR 2369545 . In The collected
mathematical papers of James
Joseph Sylvester (December 1904) ,
H. F. Baker, ed. Sylvester defines the
class of a partition into distinct
integers as the number of blocks of
consecutive integers in the partition,
so in his notation a polite partition is
 of first class.
14. Mason, T. E. (1911), "On the
representations of a number as a sum
of consecutive integers", Proceedings
of the Indiana Academy of Science:
273–274.
15. Mason, Thomas E. (1912), "On the
representation of an integer as the
sum of consecutive integers",
American Mathematical Monthly, 19
(3): 46–50, doi:10.2307/2972423 ,
JSTOR 2972423 , MR 1517654 .
16. Leveque, W. J. (1950), "On
representations as a sum of
consecutive integers", Canadian
 Journal of Mathematics, 2: 399–405,
doi:10.4153/CJM-1950-036-3 ,
MR 0038368 ,
17. Pong, Wai Yan (2007), "Sums of
consecutive integers", College Math.
J., 38 (2): 119–123,
arXiv:math/0701149 ,
Bibcode:2007math......1149P ,
MR 2293915 .
18. Britt, Michael J. C.; Fradin, Lillie;
Philips, Kathy; Feldman, Dima; Cooper,
Leon N. (2005), "On sums of
consecutive integers", Quart. Appl.
Math., 63 (4): 791–792,
doi:10.1090/S0033-569X-05-00991-1 ,
 MR 2187932 .
19. Frenzen, C. L. (1997), "Proof without
words: sums of consecutive positive
integers", Math. Mag., 70 (4): 294,
JSTOR 2690871 , MR 1573264 .
20. Guy, Robert (1982), "Sums of
consecutive integers" (PDF),
Fibonacci Quarterly, 20 (1): 36–38,
Zbl 0475.10014 .
21. Apostol, Tom M. (2003), "Sums of
consecutive positive integers", The
Mathematical Gazette, 87 (508): 98–
101, JSTOR 3620570 .
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(1975), "Sums of consecutive positive
 integers", Mathematics Teacher, 68
(1): 18–21.
23. Parker, John (1998), "Sums of
consecutive integers", Mathematics in
School, 27 (2): 8–11.
24. Graham, Ronald; Knuth, Donald;
Patashnik, Oren (1988), "Problem
2.30", Concrete Mathematics, Addison-
Wesley, p. 65, ISBN 978-0-201-14236-
5.
25. Vaderlind, Paul; Guy, Richard K.;
Larson, Loren C. (2002), The inquisitive
problem solver, Mathematical
Association of America, pp. 205–206,
ISBN 978-0-88385-806-6.
26. Andrews, G. E. (1966), "On
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External links
 "Polite number" . PlanetMath.
Polite Numbers , NRICH, University of
Cambridge, December 2002
An Introduction to Runsums , R. Knott.
Is there any pattern to the set of
trapezoidal numbers?
Intellectualism.org question of the day,
October 2, 2003. With a diagram
showing trapezoidal numbers color-
coded by the number of terms in their
expansions.

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